THE WHITE SUPREMACIST FOUNDATION OF TRUMP’S MASS DEPORTATION PLAN
Today the United States is once again facing a most serious threat to the realization of one of the most fundamental objectives of our constitutional democracy, racial justice and equality. This threat is coming from the highest levels of our government through the racist, white supremacist agenda of the Trump mass deportation plan. As early as 2016 Trump was calling himself a nationalist. As a self-proclaimed nationalist, Trump’s early focus was on his unsubstantiated claim that America was in decline and that his objective would be to restore the nation to some vague situation of past greatness. Trump suggested that the way to do this would be for the United States to start placing the interests and values of this nation before all other interests and values. This is what he means by “America First.” By putting the interest of “America First” Trump proclaims that we can “Make America Great Again” (MAGA).
However, for Trump, “America First” and “Making America Great Again” very soon became much more. In the 20th century nationalism became associated with the far right, with fascism, with leaders like Mussolini and Hitler who had underlying racial agendas. In this sense nationalism includes the objective of maintaining the foundational racial character of a nation. When one applies this understanding of nationalism to the United States, it means maintaining and protecting the status and values of white people. Nationalism becomes translated into “white nationalism” and “white supremacy.” According to “white nationalism” only Caucasians can be considered authentic members of the American nation. “White nationalism” believes that the national identity of the United States should be built around white ethnicity, and that white people should maintain both a demographic majority and political and economic dominance over the nation. Through his rhetoric, staffing, and policy choices Trump has supported and energized “white nationalism” in this sense. “America First” and “Making American Great Again” have become the battle cries for Trump and his Maga Republicans in their efforts to restore the dominance of “white supremacy” in the political, economic, cultural, legal, sexual, religious, and ethical values in the institutions of our society.
Nowhere is the white supremacist foundation of Trump’s Maga Republican agenda more evident than it is in its immigration policy. As early as 2015 Trump began his attack on the basic humanity of immigrants of color. He called the immigrants from Mexico and the Latin American countries violent criminals, rapists, child traffickers, and drug dealers. Mexico, he said, has not sent us its best. He often referred to immigrants as “animals” and the “enemy from within.” Immigrants were accused of being the major source of crime in our cities and of taking away jobs from U.S. citizens. The proposed solutions included closing the southern border, building a wall, and deporting the violent criminals. Some critics have pointed out that the evidence does not justify or substantiate these claims.
On the issue of the relationship between immigration and crime, Brett Hoover, a Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University, points out in a recent article in Commonweal Magazine that immigration, including illegal immigration, does not lead to an increase in violent crime. In fact, he states, that “during our recent era of higher immigration, crime has been decreasing.” (Brett C. Hoover, “The Suffering to Come: Lying about Immigration lays the Groundwork for Mass Deportation,” Commonweal, January 23, 2025). Dr. Hoover points to a 2020 study from Texas state records which found that native-born citizens and legal immigrants have a significantly higher propensity for crime than undocumented immigrants. This makes sense, he states, because immigrants without authorization wish to avoid entanglements with the law. (Hoover, “The Suffering to Come”) Addressing the false claim that immigrants are taking jobs away from U.S. citizens, Professor Kristin Heyer, Theology Department: Boston College, points out that “studies show that immigrant laborers provide a net benefit to the U.S. economy and have helped to increase jobs in recent years.” (Heyer, “A Catholic Guide to Immigration Ethics in the Trump Era,” America Magazine, December 12, 2024).
In his 2024 presidential campaign Trump’s attacks on immigrants of color became more intense and outrageous, filled with hateful accusations and violent threats. Immigrants were not only blamed for violent crime and the loss of American jobs, now they were being accused of taking over American cities and threatening to destroy them from within. In September 2024, Trump and Vance claimed that a group of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Illinois were taking over the city and causing problems for the local population (mostly white). Both Trump and Vance made this false charge more despicable by spreading the false claim that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating animals, particularly dogs and cats, in an effort to further dehumanize them. When questioned in an interview on CNN (September 15, 2024) Vance went on to defend his false claim by stating. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” In the final days of his campaign Trump made similar charges against the migrants in Aurora, Colorado, claiming that Venezuelan gangs were taking over the city and ruining the fabric of our country. He vowed to rescue the city from the rapists, “blood thirsty criminals,” and “most violent people on earth.” Trump vowed that he would remove the Venezuelan migrants under an “Operation Aurora” using the presidential wartime powers under the Alien Enemies Act.
Toward the end of the 2024 presential campaign Trump escalated his attacks on immigrants of color by claiming that they are genetically predisposed to commit crimes. In a rally on October 12, 2024, Trump stated that immigrants commit horrendous crimes because “it’s in their genes” and “we have a lot of bad genes in this country.” They will “walk into your kitchen and cut your throat.” “They are wired that way.” Not only are immigrants the cause of crime and the loss of America jobs, but according to Trump they have already invaded our cities and are destroying the fabric and culture of our society from inside our own borders. Closing the border, building a wall, and keeping immigrants of color out of the country are no longer sufficient solutions. Trump presents his final solution to the problem by promising detention camps and the largest deportation of immigrants in American History. Trump ends the October12, 2024 rally with the following threat. “On day one of my new administration the invasion of savage criminals ends and, on that same day, the largest deportation in American History begins. The racists white supremacist agenda of Trump and the Maga Republicans could not be any clearer. Trump has demonized all immigrants of color lumping them together into one collective group of people whom he condemns as animals, inhuman, violent criminals, rapists, child traffickers, drug dealers, and genetically inferior to whites. Their very presence in the United States threatens the Maga Republican white supremacists agenda to “Make America Great Again.”
None of Trump’s attacks on immigrants of color are based upon any hard evidence or research studies. Trump and his Maga Republicans do not seem to think it is necessary to demonstrate the truth of their false claims by presenting any scientific, sociological or economic evidence to substantiate their views. If Trump says it so, then it is true. Like many of Trump’s Maga foundational beliefs, his attacks on immigrants are fabrications of the Maga ideology rooted in a conglomeration of lies and false narratives. His entire political agenda is based upon lying, hate, violence, creating false narratives, distorting and misrepresenting the views of his opponents. He labels those who do not support him, or vote for him, as enemies, and threatens to put them in jail or punish them in other ways. He has surrounded himself with people who totally adhere to his political agenda without any doubts or any questions. Loyalty is the only qualification for serving in Trump’s presidency. Intelligence, professional skills, ethical character, government experience, or the ability to listen to opposing views are not necessary qualifications. This loyalty means accepting an ever-escalating series of lies that began with his false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election. This has become the foundational lie of the whole Trump Maga political agenda. Trump has a facility for turning lies into reality for his followers.
The Execution of the Plan:
The initial targets of Trump’s mass deportation plan were immigrants of color from Mexico and Latin America, a significant number of whom are Catholics. Masked Ice Agents, with no identification, armed with guns, in unmarked vehicles, began making raids on the immigrant population in major U.S. cities and, with no warrants, no hearings, arrested undocumented immigrants and sent them to detention camps where they were to await deportation. Most of those arrested were not violent criminals, but women and men, and some children, who had lived in the U.S. for a number of years living good lives and supporting their families. Under the guise of “fighting crime,” the Trump administration decided to send National Guard troops into some of the major cities in the U.S. Their actual objective was to protect the ICE agents and support them in making arrests. National Guard troops were first sent into Los Angeles, but are now gone. They are presently deployed in Washington D.C. and Memphis, Tennessee. Trump’s orders to send troops into Chicago and Portland are presently being held up in court on constitutional challenges. It should be pointed out that Trump is only employing this strategy in what he calls democratic states.
The tactics being employed by Ice Agents against the protesters, especially in Chicago, have become more and more aggressive and violent. They show no respect for the rights of the protesters and they push and taunt them trying to get them to respond violently. When they do not, the ICE agents initiate their aggressive tactics. Here is a scenario: “An Ice agent approaches, forces himself into the protesters space. The protester stands his ground; the agent sprays him with pepper spray. As the protester raises her hands, to protect her eyes, she is thrown to the ground, then kicked or hit with a baton. The protester fights back to save his life, is surrounded by other agents, and arrested for inciting violence.” This tactic is called “institutional violence” and it is deliberately being used by Ice Agents to incite protesters to respond violently.
Another tactic being used by the president to increase the number of immigrants of color subject to deportation is through the use of executive orders. Trump has issued several executive orders that have either suspended or terminated programs that provided temporary status or protection for immigrants of color from countries like Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Honduras and Nicaragua making them eligible for deportation. Should the president’s executive order on birthright citizenship ever be declared to be constitutional that will add even more immigrants of color to the list of Maga deportees. In a blatant manifestation of its racist immigration agenda, the Trump administration has established a fast-track refugee program for admitting white South Africans (Afrikaners).
In recent days Trump and his Maga supporters are claiming, with no evidence, that those protesting the administration’s immigration policies and the dehumanizing tactics of the ICE agents are insurrectionist trying to overthrow the government. Trump, J.D. Vance and Stephen Miller are creating another false narrative which goes like this: Everyone who opposes Trump and the Maga Republican agenda are the enemies of the U.S. and therefore, from their perspective, are also enemies of God and Christianity as they understand both. They are threatening to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to enable the president, on his own authority, to send the regular active military into democratic cities in order to police and arrest U.S. citizens, an act that in itself is unconstitutional. In other words, all those Americans who are not Maga Trump supporters and do not accept their agenda, particularly democrats, are enemies of the United States. De facto, that is certainly more than half of the people living in the United States of America today. Listen to the threats made against his fellow citizens at the meeting with U.S. Generals on September 30, 2025, “We are under invasion from within.” Defending the homeland is the military’s “most important priority.” The enemy within is “no different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.” Trump suggests that American cities [but only democratic] be used as “training grounds for the U.S. military.” Trump and the Maga Republican leaders are falsely identifying the exercise of freedom of speech and the use of protest to criticize him and the Maga agenda with insurrection. These efforts of the Trump administration to silence those who disagree with him and his policies are also forms of “institutionalized violence.” They are a threat to the constitutional rights of more than half of the people living in this country.
The Maga Deportation Theory:
One of the strongest arguments supporting the claim for the racist, white supremacist foundation of Trump’s Maga Republican mass deportation plan can be found in an examination of the immigration philosophy of the person Trump has chosen as it leader. Stephen Miller, the administration’s Deputy Chief of Staff for policy and Homeland Security Advisor, has been given absolute authority to plan and execute the Maga Republican mass deportation program. Miller’s background and experience indicate that his immigration philosophy has been heavily influenced by the views of white nationalism and white supremacism. The evidence also suggests that he is an advocate of the “Great Replacement” theory which maintains that white people of European descent are being systematically replaced by non-white immigrants in Western countries. (Amanda Marcotte, “Stephen Miller Can’t Make America White…,” Salon, June 11, 2025). Marcotte also points out that in 2019 the Southern Poverty Law Center reviewed a series of leaked emails that Miller had sent to Breitbart News in 2015 and 2016 that illustrated his obsession with making America white again. (Marcotte, Salon). Marcotte adds that Miller has “repeatedly denounced legal immigration of non-white people and endorsed the idea that racial diversity is a threat to white people.” (Marcotte, Salon). The mass deportation of immigrants of color is the first stage of the plan to restore the dominance of “white supremacy” in the political, economic, cultural, legal, sexual, religious, and ethical values in the institutions of our society.
On Thursday, May 29, 2025, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, announced that, as part of a “reorganization plan,” the State Department was proposing the creation of an “Office of Remigration.” (Isabela Dias, “The Worrying Backstory of Trump’s Proposed Office of Remigration,” Politics, May 30, 2025). In the proposal the “Office of Remigration” is described as a “hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking” whose purpose is to facilitate “interagency coordination” on “removals and repatriations.” (Lis Zhou, “The Trump Admin Reportedly Wants An Office of Remigration. That’s Alarming,” HuffPost, May 29, 2025).
The term remigration describes an immigration policy that is often promoted in conjunction with the racist and conspiratorial “Great Replacement” theory, which claims that elites are trying to displace white people with people of color in Western countries. (Zhou, HuffPost). Remigration, the proposed solution, calls for the forcible repatriation or mass expulsion of non-white, non-European immigrants and their descendants regardless of their immigration status or citizenship. (Dias, Politics). A total and complete adoption of the policy of remigration would go well beyond a mass deportation program of non-white, non-European immigrants and become more like “soft-style ethnic cleansing.” (Diaz, Politics).
Day by day, it is becoming more and more evident that the Maga Republican political party, through an alliance with White Christian nationalism, has become a religious movement as well, with Trump, of course, being its anointed leader. On February 22, 2024, in a speech at the National Religious (NCB) International Christian Media Convention in Nashville Trump told the audience that there was a breakdown of Christianity in America. And, of course, he blamed Joe Biden (a Catholic), the democrats, communists, and the radical left without offering an ounce of evidence to support any of these claims. Following this with an explosion of lies, he stated that Christians in the U.S. are being persecuted and discriminated against by enemies from within, meaning, all of those people in the United States who did not agree with or support the Maga Republican agenda. As the false narrative grows, Trump’s Maga supporters turn him into a prophet and refer to him as the savior whom God has chosen to “make America Christian again.” In a video in January 2024, on Truth Social, posted by Trump, an evangelical preacher claims that Trump was created specially by God and pre-anointed to become president and to save the United States. In a blasphemous rant at his hush money trial during Holy Week, 2024, Trump actually compared himself to Jesus Christ, suggesting that his trial experience was analogous to the suffering and death of Jeus on the cross. When the first assassination attempt failed, this, of course, was a sure sign that God had saved him and chosen him to be president.
An illustration of what a union of Maga Republican white supremacy and white Christian nationalism looks like can be seen in a speech given by Eric Schmitt, the junior Republican senator from Missouri, given at the National Conservatism Conference, September 2-4, 2025. In his speech Schmitt defines an American in this way. He asks, “What is an American?” and follows with this answer, “It is a white person. America is a white homeland that organically binds together white people of the past, present and future. And its policies must be guided for their benefit if they are to succeed.” (Joshua Shanes, “A Sitting Senator Just Went Full Mask-Off White Nationalist,” Slate, September 5, 2025). Speaking of the founders of America, Schmitt says, “We Americans are the sons and daughters of the Christian pilgrims that poured out from Europe’s shores to baptize a new world in their ancient faith.” (Shanes, “A Sitting Senator). Joshua Shanes states “ Schmitt makes clear that the problem of immigration is not the rules or that the rules are not enforced. It is about immigration per se, about non-Europeans stealing the birthright of the descendants of America’s original white Christian settlers.” (Shanes, “A Sitting Senator). The enemies to the realization of this white American nation include native Americans, Black slaves, Obama and his supporters, those who want to take away their confederate flags, tear down their confederate statues and monuments, mock their history, insult their traditions. America does not belong to any of these people. (Shanes, “A Sitting Senator). In Schmitt’s own words, “But America does not belong to them…It’s a heritage entrusted to us by our ancestors. It’s a way of life that is ours, and only ours, and if we disappear, then America, too, will cease to exist.” (Shanes, “A Sitting Senator”). Joshua Shanes concludes his article by pointing out that the National Conservatism Conference and this speech by Schmitt demonstrates the Maga Republican agenda is not just about fighting illegal immigration, but that ultimately it is about implementing “a white (Christian) nationalist vision of America that claims ownership of power and resources for white (Christian) American’s alone.” (Shanes, “A Sitting Senator”).
With this alliance between Maga Republicanism and white Christian nationalism, Trump’s Maga political agenda becomes a religious movement with a sacred and holy purpose. All those who oppose Maga Republicanism are also the enemies of God. In the words of Stephen Miller at Charlie Kirk’s funeral, “You [Maga’s enemies] cannot frighten us, you cannot threaten us, because we are on the side of goodness and God.” With God on their side, their cause becomes a holy war, allowing the Maga Republicans to bring the wrath of God down on their enemies and use any means to achieve victory, including violence. A survey by the Public Religious Research Institute (PRRI, 2024) pointed out that Christian nationalists are more likely than other Americans to see political struggles through the apocalyptic lens of revolution and support political violence. What Trump and his Maga supporters are really offering America is an alliance between an absolutist racist’s political agenda and a self-righteous white Christian nationalism as the path to “Making America Great Again.” This unholy alliance is a conglomeration of false narratives about the origin of or nation, a white supremacist immigration policy, and an apocalyptic distortion of the Christian Gospel.
The Need for a Renewed Catholic Response:
From the very beginning the leaders of the Catholic Church have made it clear that Trump’s mass deportation plan is incompatible with the Catholic Church’s social justice teaching on immigrants which is grounded in the church’s belief that all persons are created in the image of God and therefore worthy of inherent dignity and respect. Pope Francis called the administration’s mass deportation plan a disgrace because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing pay the bill for the imbalances. This is not the way to solve things.”(January 20, 2025). In a letter to the U.S. bishops on February 10, 2025, the pope issued a major rebuke of Trump’s mass deportation program stating that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity and will end badly. He went on to state that the “rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any message that tacitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.” The pope adds, it [Trump’s mass deportation plan] is a policy based upon force and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being. At the end of his letter to the U.S. Bishops, Pope Francis applauds the U.S. bishops for promoting the fundamental human rights of immigrants and urged the Catholic faithful not to give in to false narratives that discriminates against immigrants.
In January 2025, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops raised some questions about the compatibility of Trump’s mass deportation plan with the Catholic Church’s teaching on immigrants. He pointed out the negative effects that it would have on immigrants by harming the most vulnerable among us. (USSCB). The archbishop urged the administration to reconsider “those actions which disregard not only the human dignity of a few, but of all of us.” (USSCB). Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, presented an even stronger criticism of Trump’s mass deportation plan. He stated, “The use of sweeping generalizations to denigrate any group, such as ‘criminals’ or ‘invaders,’ to deprive them of protection under the law, is an affront to God, who has created each of us in his own image.” (USCCB). Unfortunately, not only did the U.S. bishops not take a united stance against Trump’s mass deportation program, but some of them actually support it, as well as do many Catholic Trump supporters. This initial opposition lost its momentum.
However, recently in the last month or so, there are signs that the leadership of the Catholic Church is becoming aware of the inadequacy of it past opposition to the Maga deportation plan. A group of Catholic immigrant advocates met at Fordham University at a conference sponsored by the Center for Migration Studies (September 15-16, 2025) and concluded that there is a need for a better and bolder Catholic response to Trump’s mass deportation program. Reflecting on the increased cruelty of the raids and the escalation in the inhuman treatment of the immigrants, those present agreed that it was time for the U.S. Catholic church to step up and push back. In moving forward the participants at the conference stressed the need for formation. For an effective response it is essential that the church make sure that the Catholic faithful know and understood the church’s social teaching on immigrants. In his presentation at the conference Father Bryan Massingale, Professor of Theological and Social Ethics at Fordham University, presented the U.S. bishops with a challenge by raising the need to confront the racist and white supremacists foundation of the Maga deportation plan. He pointed out that the administration’s immigrant agenda is more than an expression of a wrong-headed and immoral policy but of patriarchy and white supremacy. While recognizing the value of the U.S. bishops past statements confronting Trump’s immigration policies, Father Massingale suggested that they were too isolated from the issues of race and white supremacy. Hopefully, the U.S. bishops and Catholic leaders will accept Father Massingale’s challenge and confront this heinous and inhuman immigration policy not only for its violations of the Catholic church’s social teaching on immigrants but also for its violations of its teachings against white supremacy and racial discrimination.
Another hopeful sign energizing a renewed Catholic response is that Pope Leo XIV has raised his criticism of the Trump immigration policies in the last two months. In late September Pope Leo tweeted, “No one should be forced to flee, nor exploited because of their situation as foreigners or people in need! Human dignity must always come first!” (September 30, 2025). On September 30, 2025, in responding to the Senator Dick Durbin controversy, Leo said, “Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in favor of the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States’ – I don’t know if that’s pro-life.” At an audience with U.S. Bishop Mark Seitz, El Paso and the Hope Boarder Institute on October 10, 2025, the pope urged the U.S. bishops to be “more united and more forceful” in pushing back on the administration’s immigration policies. In a remark intended for the U.S. bishops, Pope Leo said, “You stand with me and I stand with you, and the church will continue to accompany and stand with migrants.” The pope added that he would like to see a statement on immigration from the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops. Bishop Seitz responded that one was already in progress. Hopefully, this issue will be a central focus of the U.S. bishops annual conference when they meet in Baltimore in November.
10/27/25
However, for Trump, “America First” and “Making America Great Again” very soon became much more. In the 20th century nationalism became associated with the far right, with fascism, with leaders like Mussolini and Hitler who had underlying racial agendas. In this sense nationalism includes the objective of maintaining the foundational racial character of a nation. When one applies this understanding of nationalism to the United States, it means maintaining and protecting the status and values of white people. Nationalism becomes translated into “white nationalism” and “white supremacy.” According to “white nationalism” only Caucasians can be considered authentic members of the American nation. “White nationalism” believes that the national identity of the United States should be built around white ethnicity, and that white people should maintain both a demographic majority and political and economic dominance over the nation. Through his rhetoric, staffing, and policy choices Trump has supported and energized “white nationalism” in this sense. “America First” and “Making American Great Again” have become the battle cries for Trump and his Maga Republicans in their efforts to restore the dominance of “white supremacy” in the political, economic, cultural, legal, sexual, religious, and ethical values in the institutions of our society.
Nowhere is the white supremacist foundation of Trump’s Maga Republican agenda more evident than it is in its immigration policy. As early as 2015 Trump began his attack on the basic humanity of immigrants of color. He called the immigrants from Mexico and the Latin American countries violent criminals, rapists, child traffickers, and drug dealers. Mexico, he said, has not sent us its best. He often referred to immigrants as “animals” and the “enemy from within.” Immigrants were accused of being the major source of crime in our cities and of taking away jobs from U.S. citizens. The proposed solutions included closing the southern border, building a wall, and deporting the violent criminals. Some critics have pointed out that the evidence does not justify or substantiate these claims.
On the issue of the relationship between immigration and crime, Brett Hoover, a Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University, points out in a recent article in Commonweal Magazine that immigration, including illegal immigration, does not lead to an increase in violent crime. In fact, he states, that “during our recent era of higher immigration, crime has been decreasing.” (Brett C. Hoover, “The Suffering to Come: Lying about Immigration lays the Groundwork for Mass Deportation,” Commonweal, January 23, 2025). Dr. Hoover points to a 2020 study from Texas state records which found that native-born citizens and legal immigrants have a significantly higher propensity for crime than undocumented immigrants. This makes sense, he states, because immigrants without authorization wish to avoid entanglements with the law. (Hoover, “The Suffering to Come”) Addressing the false claim that immigrants are taking jobs away from U.S. citizens, Professor Kristin Heyer, Theology Department: Boston College, points out that “studies show that immigrant laborers provide a net benefit to the U.S. economy and have helped to increase jobs in recent years.” (Heyer, “A Catholic Guide to Immigration Ethics in the Trump Era,” America Magazine, December 12, 2024).
In his 2024 presidential campaign Trump’s attacks on immigrants of color became more intense and outrageous, filled with hateful accusations and violent threats. Immigrants were not only blamed for violent crime and the loss of American jobs, now they were being accused of taking over American cities and threatening to destroy them from within. In September 2024, Trump and Vance claimed that a group of Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Illinois were taking over the city and causing problems for the local population (mostly white). Both Trump and Vance made this false charge more despicable by spreading the false claim that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating animals, particularly dogs and cats, in an effort to further dehumanize them. When questioned in an interview on CNN (September 15, 2024) Vance went on to defend his false claim by stating. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.” In the final days of his campaign Trump made similar charges against the migrants in Aurora, Colorado, claiming that Venezuelan gangs were taking over the city and ruining the fabric of our country. He vowed to rescue the city from the rapists, “blood thirsty criminals,” and “most violent people on earth.” Trump vowed that he would remove the Venezuelan migrants under an “Operation Aurora” using the presidential wartime powers under the Alien Enemies Act.
Toward the end of the 2024 presential campaign Trump escalated his attacks on immigrants of color by claiming that they are genetically predisposed to commit crimes. In a rally on October 12, 2024, Trump stated that immigrants commit horrendous crimes because “it’s in their genes” and “we have a lot of bad genes in this country.” They will “walk into your kitchen and cut your throat.” “They are wired that way.” Not only are immigrants the cause of crime and the loss of America jobs, but according to Trump they have already invaded our cities and are destroying the fabric and culture of our society from inside our own borders. Closing the border, building a wall, and keeping immigrants of color out of the country are no longer sufficient solutions. Trump presents his final solution to the problem by promising detention camps and the largest deportation of immigrants in American History. Trump ends the October12, 2024 rally with the following threat. “On day one of my new administration the invasion of savage criminals ends and, on that same day, the largest deportation in American History begins. The racists white supremacist agenda of Trump and the Maga Republicans could not be any clearer. Trump has demonized all immigrants of color lumping them together into one collective group of people whom he condemns as animals, inhuman, violent criminals, rapists, child traffickers, drug dealers, and genetically inferior to whites. Their very presence in the United States threatens the Maga Republican white supremacists agenda to “Make America Great Again.”
None of Trump’s attacks on immigrants of color are based upon any hard evidence or research studies. Trump and his Maga Republicans do not seem to think it is necessary to demonstrate the truth of their false claims by presenting any scientific, sociological or economic evidence to substantiate their views. If Trump says it so, then it is true. Like many of Trump’s Maga foundational beliefs, his attacks on immigrants are fabrications of the Maga ideology rooted in a conglomeration of lies and false narratives. His entire political agenda is based upon lying, hate, violence, creating false narratives, distorting and misrepresenting the views of his opponents. He labels those who do not support him, or vote for him, as enemies, and threatens to put them in jail or punish them in other ways. He has surrounded himself with people who totally adhere to his political agenda without any doubts or any questions. Loyalty is the only qualification for serving in Trump’s presidency. Intelligence, professional skills, ethical character, government experience, or the ability to listen to opposing views are not necessary qualifications. This loyalty means accepting an ever-escalating series of lies that began with his false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election. This has become the foundational lie of the whole Trump Maga political agenda. Trump has a facility for turning lies into reality for his followers.
The Execution of the Plan:
The initial targets of Trump’s mass deportation plan were immigrants of color from Mexico and Latin America, a significant number of whom are Catholics. Masked Ice Agents, with no identification, armed with guns, in unmarked vehicles, began making raids on the immigrant population in major U.S. cities and, with no warrants, no hearings, arrested undocumented immigrants and sent them to detention camps where they were to await deportation. Most of those arrested were not violent criminals, but women and men, and some children, who had lived in the U.S. for a number of years living good lives and supporting their families. Under the guise of “fighting crime,” the Trump administration decided to send National Guard troops into some of the major cities in the U.S. Their actual objective was to protect the ICE agents and support them in making arrests. National Guard troops were first sent into Los Angeles, but are now gone. They are presently deployed in Washington D.C. and Memphis, Tennessee. Trump’s orders to send troops into Chicago and Portland are presently being held up in court on constitutional challenges. It should be pointed out that Trump is only employing this strategy in what he calls democratic states.
The tactics being employed by Ice Agents against the protesters, especially in Chicago, have become more and more aggressive and violent. They show no respect for the rights of the protesters and they push and taunt them trying to get them to respond violently. When they do not, the ICE agents initiate their aggressive tactics. Here is a scenario: “An Ice agent approaches, forces himself into the protesters space. The protester stands his ground; the agent sprays him with pepper spray. As the protester raises her hands, to protect her eyes, she is thrown to the ground, then kicked or hit with a baton. The protester fights back to save his life, is surrounded by other agents, and arrested for inciting violence.” This tactic is called “institutional violence” and it is deliberately being used by Ice Agents to incite protesters to respond violently.
Another tactic being used by the president to increase the number of immigrants of color subject to deportation is through the use of executive orders. Trump has issued several executive orders that have either suspended or terminated programs that provided temporary status or protection for immigrants of color from countries like Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Honduras and Nicaragua making them eligible for deportation. Should the president’s executive order on birthright citizenship ever be declared to be constitutional that will add even more immigrants of color to the list of Maga deportees. In a blatant manifestation of its racist immigration agenda, the Trump administration has established a fast-track refugee program for admitting white South Africans (Afrikaners).
In recent days Trump and his Maga supporters are claiming, with no evidence, that those protesting the administration’s immigration policies and the dehumanizing tactics of the ICE agents are insurrectionist trying to overthrow the government. Trump, J.D. Vance and Stephen Miller are creating another false narrative which goes like this: Everyone who opposes Trump and the Maga Republican agenda are the enemies of the U.S. and therefore, from their perspective, are also enemies of God and Christianity as they understand both. They are threatening to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to enable the president, on his own authority, to send the regular active military into democratic cities in order to police and arrest U.S. citizens, an act that in itself is unconstitutional. In other words, all those Americans who are not Maga Trump supporters and do not accept their agenda, particularly democrats, are enemies of the United States. De facto, that is certainly more than half of the people living in the United States of America today. Listen to the threats made against his fellow citizens at the meeting with U.S. Generals on September 30, 2025, “We are under invasion from within.” Defending the homeland is the military’s “most important priority.” The enemy within is “no different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.” Trump suggests that American cities [but only democratic] be used as “training grounds for the U.S. military.” Trump and the Maga Republican leaders are falsely identifying the exercise of freedom of speech and the use of protest to criticize him and the Maga agenda with insurrection. These efforts of the Trump administration to silence those who disagree with him and his policies are also forms of “institutionalized violence.” They are a threat to the constitutional rights of more than half of the people living in this country.
The Maga Deportation Theory:
One of the strongest arguments supporting the claim for the racist, white supremacist foundation of Trump’s Maga Republican mass deportation plan can be found in an examination of the immigration philosophy of the person Trump has chosen as it leader. Stephen Miller, the administration’s Deputy Chief of Staff for policy and Homeland Security Advisor, has been given absolute authority to plan and execute the Maga Republican mass deportation program. Miller’s background and experience indicate that his immigration philosophy has been heavily influenced by the views of white nationalism and white supremacism. The evidence also suggests that he is an advocate of the “Great Replacement” theory which maintains that white people of European descent are being systematically replaced by non-white immigrants in Western countries. (Amanda Marcotte, “Stephen Miller Can’t Make America White…,” Salon, June 11, 2025). Marcotte also points out that in 2019 the Southern Poverty Law Center reviewed a series of leaked emails that Miller had sent to Breitbart News in 2015 and 2016 that illustrated his obsession with making America white again. (Marcotte, Salon). Marcotte adds that Miller has “repeatedly denounced legal immigration of non-white people and endorsed the idea that racial diversity is a threat to white people.” (Marcotte, Salon). The mass deportation of immigrants of color is the first stage of the plan to restore the dominance of “white supremacy” in the political, economic, cultural, legal, sexual, religious, and ethical values in the institutions of our society.
On Thursday, May 29, 2025, Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, announced that, as part of a “reorganization plan,” the State Department was proposing the creation of an “Office of Remigration.” (Isabela Dias, “The Worrying Backstory of Trump’s Proposed Office of Remigration,” Politics, May 30, 2025). In the proposal the “Office of Remigration” is described as a “hub for immigration issues and repatriation tracking” whose purpose is to facilitate “interagency coordination” on “removals and repatriations.” (Lis Zhou, “The Trump Admin Reportedly Wants An Office of Remigration. That’s Alarming,” HuffPost, May 29, 2025).
The term remigration describes an immigration policy that is often promoted in conjunction with the racist and conspiratorial “Great Replacement” theory, which claims that elites are trying to displace white people with people of color in Western countries. (Zhou, HuffPost). Remigration, the proposed solution, calls for the forcible repatriation or mass expulsion of non-white, non-European immigrants and their descendants regardless of their immigration status or citizenship. (Dias, Politics). A total and complete adoption of the policy of remigration would go well beyond a mass deportation program of non-white, non-European immigrants and become more like “soft-style ethnic cleansing.” (Diaz, Politics).
Day by day, it is becoming more and more evident that the Maga Republican political party, through an alliance with White Christian nationalism, has become a religious movement as well, with Trump, of course, being its anointed leader. On February 22, 2024, in a speech at the National Religious (NCB) International Christian Media Convention in Nashville Trump told the audience that there was a breakdown of Christianity in America. And, of course, he blamed Joe Biden (a Catholic), the democrats, communists, and the radical left without offering an ounce of evidence to support any of these claims. Following this with an explosion of lies, he stated that Christians in the U.S. are being persecuted and discriminated against by enemies from within, meaning, all of those people in the United States who did not agree with or support the Maga Republican agenda. As the false narrative grows, Trump’s Maga supporters turn him into a prophet and refer to him as the savior whom God has chosen to “make America Christian again.” In a video in January 2024, on Truth Social, posted by Trump, an evangelical preacher claims that Trump was created specially by God and pre-anointed to become president and to save the United States. In a blasphemous rant at his hush money trial during Holy Week, 2024, Trump actually compared himself to Jesus Christ, suggesting that his trial experience was analogous to the suffering and death of Jeus on the cross. When the first assassination attempt failed, this, of course, was a sure sign that God had saved him and chosen him to be president.
An illustration of what a union of Maga Republican white supremacy and white Christian nationalism looks like can be seen in a speech given by Eric Schmitt, the junior Republican senator from Missouri, given at the National Conservatism Conference, September 2-4, 2025. In his speech Schmitt defines an American in this way. He asks, “What is an American?” and follows with this answer, “It is a white person. America is a white homeland that organically binds together white people of the past, present and future. And its policies must be guided for their benefit if they are to succeed.” (Joshua Shanes, “A Sitting Senator Just Went Full Mask-Off White Nationalist,” Slate, September 5, 2025). Speaking of the founders of America, Schmitt says, “We Americans are the sons and daughters of the Christian pilgrims that poured out from Europe’s shores to baptize a new world in their ancient faith.” (Shanes, “A Sitting Senator). Joshua Shanes states “ Schmitt makes clear that the problem of immigration is not the rules or that the rules are not enforced. It is about immigration per se, about non-Europeans stealing the birthright of the descendants of America’s original white Christian settlers.” (Shanes, “A Sitting Senator). The enemies to the realization of this white American nation include native Americans, Black slaves, Obama and his supporters, those who want to take away their confederate flags, tear down their confederate statues and monuments, mock their history, insult their traditions. America does not belong to any of these people. (Shanes, “A Sitting Senator). In Schmitt’s own words, “But America does not belong to them…It’s a heritage entrusted to us by our ancestors. It’s a way of life that is ours, and only ours, and if we disappear, then America, too, will cease to exist.” (Shanes, “A Sitting Senator”). Joshua Shanes concludes his article by pointing out that the National Conservatism Conference and this speech by Schmitt demonstrates the Maga Republican agenda is not just about fighting illegal immigration, but that ultimately it is about implementing “a white (Christian) nationalist vision of America that claims ownership of power and resources for white (Christian) American’s alone.” (Shanes, “A Sitting Senator”).
With this alliance between Maga Republicanism and white Christian nationalism, Trump’s Maga political agenda becomes a religious movement with a sacred and holy purpose. All those who oppose Maga Republicanism are also the enemies of God. In the words of Stephen Miller at Charlie Kirk’s funeral, “You [Maga’s enemies] cannot frighten us, you cannot threaten us, because we are on the side of goodness and God.” With God on their side, their cause becomes a holy war, allowing the Maga Republicans to bring the wrath of God down on their enemies and use any means to achieve victory, including violence. A survey by the Public Religious Research Institute (PRRI, 2024) pointed out that Christian nationalists are more likely than other Americans to see political struggles through the apocalyptic lens of revolution and support political violence. What Trump and his Maga supporters are really offering America is an alliance between an absolutist racist’s political agenda and a self-righteous white Christian nationalism as the path to “Making America Great Again.” This unholy alliance is a conglomeration of false narratives about the origin of or nation, a white supremacist immigration policy, and an apocalyptic distortion of the Christian Gospel.
The Need for a Renewed Catholic Response:
From the very beginning the leaders of the Catholic Church have made it clear that Trump’s mass deportation plan is incompatible with the Catholic Church’s social justice teaching on immigrants which is grounded in the church’s belief that all persons are created in the image of God and therefore worthy of inherent dignity and respect. Pope Francis called the administration’s mass deportation plan a disgrace because it makes the poor wretches who have nothing pay the bill for the imbalances. This is not the way to solve things.”(January 20, 2025). In a letter to the U.S. bishops on February 10, 2025, the pope issued a major rebuke of Trump’s mass deportation program stating that the forceful removal of people purely because of their illegal status deprives them of their inherent dignity and will end badly. He went on to state that the “rightly formed conscience cannot fail to make a critical judgment and express its disagreement with any message that tacitly identifies the illegal status of some migrants with criminality.” The pope adds, it [Trump’s mass deportation plan] is a policy based upon force and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being. At the end of his letter to the U.S. Bishops, Pope Francis applauds the U.S. bishops for promoting the fundamental human rights of immigrants and urged the Catholic faithful not to give in to false narratives that discriminates against immigrants.
In January 2025, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops raised some questions about the compatibility of Trump’s mass deportation plan with the Catholic Church’s teaching on immigrants. He pointed out the negative effects that it would have on immigrants by harming the most vulnerable among us. (USSCB). The archbishop urged the administration to reconsider “those actions which disregard not only the human dignity of a few, but of all of us.” (USSCB). Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, presented an even stronger criticism of Trump’s mass deportation plan. He stated, “The use of sweeping generalizations to denigrate any group, such as ‘criminals’ or ‘invaders,’ to deprive them of protection under the law, is an affront to God, who has created each of us in his own image.” (USCCB). Unfortunately, not only did the U.S. bishops not take a united stance against Trump’s mass deportation program, but some of them actually support it, as well as do many Catholic Trump supporters. This initial opposition lost its momentum.
However, recently in the last month or so, there are signs that the leadership of the Catholic Church is becoming aware of the inadequacy of it past opposition to the Maga deportation plan. A group of Catholic immigrant advocates met at Fordham University at a conference sponsored by the Center for Migration Studies (September 15-16, 2025) and concluded that there is a need for a better and bolder Catholic response to Trump’s mass deportation program. Reflecting on the increased cruelty of the raids and the escalation in the inhuman treatment of the immigrants, those present agreed that it was time for the U.S. Catholic church to step up and push back. In moving forward the participants at the conference stressed the need for formation. For an effective response it is essential that the church make sure that the Catholic faithful know and understood the church’s social teaching on immigrants. In his presentation at the conference Father Bryan Massingale, Professor of Theological and Social Ethics at Fordham University, presented the U.S. bishops with a challenge by raising the need to confront the racist and white supremacists foundation of the Maga deportation plan. He pointed out that the administration’s immigrant agenda is more than an expression of a wrong-headed and immoral policy but of patriarchy and white supremacy. While recognizing the value of the U.S. bishops past statements confronting Trump’s immigration policies, Father Massingale suggested that they were too isolated from the issues of race and white supremacy. Hopefully, the U.S. bishops and Catholic leaders will accept Father Massingale’s challenge and confront this heinous and inhuman immigration policy not only for its violations of the Catholic church’s social teaching on immigrants but also for its violations of its teachings against white supremacy and racial discrimination.
Another hopeful sign energizing a renewed Catholic response is that Pope Leo XIV has raised his criticism of the Trump immigration policies in the last two months. In late September Pope Leo tweeted, “No one should be forced to flee, nor exploited because of their situation as foreigners or people in need! Human dignity must always come first!” (September 30, 2025). On September 30, 2025, in responding to the Senator Dick Durbin controversy, Leo said, “Someone who says ‘I’m against abortion, but I’m in favor of the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States’ – I don’t know if that’s pro-life.” At an audience with U.S. Bishop Mark Seitz, El Paso and the Hope Boarder Institute on October 10, 2025, the pope urged the U.S. bishops to be “more united and more forceful” in pushing back on the administration’s immigration policies. In a remark intended for the U.S. bishops, Pope Leo said, “You stand with me and I stand with you, and the church will continue to accompany and stand with migrants.” The pope added that he would like to see a statement on immigration from the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops. Bishop Seitz responded that one was already in progress. Hopefully, this issue will be a central focus of the U.S. bishops annual conference when they meet in Baltimore in November.
10/27/25